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THE INDUSTRIAL
AUTOMATION
SECTOR IS NOW
BEGINNING
TO DEMAND
SOLUTIONS THAT
WILL HELP IT
TRANSITION AND
BENEFIT FROM A
MORE CONNECTED
WORLD.
plants. Making wholesale changes to those
systems is both very expensive and risky so
understandably, operators are reluctant to
tackle that without the right reassurances
from their suppliers.
But if it isn’t broken, why do we need
to fix it?
Supporting legacy ICS features is challenging
for manufacturers and increasingly, the
suppliers of those systems. Many of
these systems are now 20+ years old, so
maintaining them becomes more difficult
as the in-house expertise disappears, or
replacement parts become unavailable. The
adage, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ really
doesn’t apply in a scenario where, sooner or
later, something will break and fixing it may
not be possible.
Is this just a maintenance issue?
Absolutely not, maintenance is part of
the problem, but the real issue is the lost
opportunity to increase efficiency and
productivity through the adoption of new
technologies. Older systems are often
bespoke and less likely to be compatible
with the new equipment or production
processes. This goes beyond efficiency
to include safety; many processes may
not be well supported and modifications,
upgrades or patches may not be
documented at all.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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